Belmonte calls for special polls in Iggy’s Negros Occidental district

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has called for a special election in Negros Occidental’s fifth district to elect a replacement for Rep. Ignacio Arroyo Jr., who died last month due to a lingering liver ailment.

 

Belmonte, together with four other congressmen from Negros Occidental, filed House Resolution 2171 on Tuesday certifying the vacancy of the congressional post in the district and calling for a special election to fill the vacancy.

 

“In order to uphold the system of democratic representation in government and to ensure that the people of the 5th district of Negros Occidental are not denied proper representation in the 15th Congress, there is an urgent need to hold a special election to fill the vacancy in the said district,” the resolution read.

 

The other lawmakers who filed the resolution were Negros Occidental Representatives Alfredo Marañon III, Alfredo Benitez, Mercedes Alvarez and Julio Ledesma IV.

 

The resolution was filed weeks after Belmonte himself categorically said that special polls are no longer needed in Arroyo’s district, since the May 2013 midterm polls is only more than a year away.

 

The resolution has to undergo committee deliberations, and will have to be adopted by the plenary for it to be passed by the lower chamber. It will then be forwarded to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for approval.

 

Arroyo, brother-in-law of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, died in London last January 26. His body is scheduled to arrive in the country on Wednesday night. — Andreo Calonzo/RSJ, GMA News